Why Colstrip’s Closure Reminds Me of a Bad Country Song

By Anne Hedges

Some songs are great in the beginning but become so repetitive they quickly become irritating. How many times do you need to hear the same chorus before it gets stuck in your head and drives you batty? The saga surrounding coal and the future of Colstrip is starting to sound that way. It’s high time for Montana to change the radio station.

Colstrip coal-fired power plant.

Driven by sweeping changes to
energy markets, coal plants across the country have been closing at an
unprecedented rate. In the West there are numerous examples of utilities
telling politicians and the public that their local coal plant is financially
stable and can be expected to operate for another 10 or 20 years. Jobs are
safe, they say. Tax revenue will keep flowing, they promise. And communities
have no reason to worry.

Then, one day, out of the
blue, they announce the plant is closing, with little to no notice. Does this
refrain sound familiar? It should. Last year at Senator Daines’ Energy Summit,
a Talen representative told the crowd that the worst case scenario for the
Colstrip plant was a 10-15 year life – despite the mounting economic pressure.
A year later they announced early closure of two of the four units.

Pandering politicians only
add to the annoying refrain. They promise a bright future for coal, despite
mountains of economic evidence to the contrary, then when the house comes
tumbling down, they inevitably blame overbearing environmental regulations or
extremists because it helps rile up their base.

The facts tell the real
story. Colstrip wasn’t shut down by environmental regulations. When announcing
the closure of Units 1 & 2, Talen, the plant operator and second largest
owner, said it
was because the plant’s economics just don’t pencil out anymore. It wasn’t environmental
regulations. Only politicians
looking for a quick political soundbite did that. Perhaps they need a
subscription to the Wall Street Journal, which correctly pins coal’s
demise on utilities turning to lower cost gas and renewables.

It’s ironic that
environmentalists are easier on the coal industry than the market. MEIC and
Sierra Club understood that a transition period for the closure of Units 1
& 2 was a good idea and in 2016 agreed to allow those two older units to operate
until July 2022. For that we were vilified. But the market is a harsh mistress.
According to Talen, it was losing money largely due to poor economics.

Political finger pointing
aside, this cycle has repeated itself over and over again like the refrain from
a bad country song. In Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and even in Montana with
the recent announcement of the closure of the Lewis and Clark Station, we hear
about these decisions not while the company is contemplating them but instead
only after the decision is made. That’s business. Utilities don’t want to scare
their investors, so they wait until they have an airtight financial case and
then make an announcement – usually to the surprise of the workers and
community.

But
there is something we can do about it. We can move past the “La Bamba” refrain and
find a new song. We can plan for a future in which the customers of Colstrip’s
electricity continue to get power from Montana – the kind of energy they’re
looking to buy (clean). It will fill the same transmission lines, employ
hardworking Montanans, pay fees to farmers and ranchers, and generate taxes.

Or we can swim in the river
of denial and wait for the same old refrain to play again and again. Then we
can feign surprise when utilities suddenly announce that market forces make
continued operation of the 35-year old Colstrip units 3 & 4 uneconomic, and
we’re left with nothing.

It’s our job to “see for
miles and miles” and make sure a one-horse town doesn’t end up as “a horse with
no name.” We should plan for replacement power, replacement jobs, and a
thorough cleanup of the Colstrip plant. The state still doesn’t have cleanup
bonds for the extensive contamination caused by the ash ponds associated with
Colstrip Units 1 & 2, let alone the larger Units 3 & 4 (despite the
fact the ponds have been leaking since the 1980s). The state signed an agreement
with the owners seven years ago to require such bonds yet
remains empty handed for the cleanup at these ash ponds. Perhaps it’s time for
the state to stop waiting and require bonds immediately. Proper cleanup will
create new jobs and new economic development opportunities for the community
for decades to come.
What are we waiting for?
The Colstrip area has great wind, solar, and energy storage potential. With its
world class transmission system, the Colstrip area could become a clean energy
hub. But that won’t happen unless there’s an honest acceptance of today’s
energy market and honest planning for the future. Governor Bullock’s task force on transmission for renewable
energy development last year was a great start. It’s time to either double down and make
Montana’s clean energy potential a reality or wait until that bad song’s
refrain drives us batty.